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The Memphis Zoo
Case Study: The Memphis Zoo
On April 25, 2003, The Memphis Zoo completed a five-year quest to obtain and exhibit a pair of giant pandas from China. Ya Ya and Le Le were only the fourth pair of giant pandas in the United States and the ninth in the world outside of China. The Zoo asked archer>malmo public relations to create and execute a national, regional and local publicity strategy around the arrival of the pandas.
Planning
The story was not necessarily new, as Washington, DC and Atlanta had both recently acquired Giant Pandas. And while the National Zoo had great success publicizing their arrival, interest had died down by the time Atlanta opened their exhibit. We also had to fight for space with two of the biggest stories in years: the beginning of war on Iraq and the breakout of the SARS epidemic.
The pandas’ arrival was a major step in the Memphis Zoo’s quest to be one of the world’s great zoos, and a tourist draw in its own right. To capitalize on this shift we needed extensive national coverage. Due to the cost of the exhibit and the conservation programs associated with it, it was vitally important to maximize marketing dollars to drive attendance. As a non-profit organization with limited funds, publicity was the zoo’s best option.
Client Objectives
The Memphis Zoo’s objective was to take a major step toward becoming one of the world’s great zoos by maximizing national publicity of the arrival of giant pandas. A successful campaign would include coverage by one of the major national television morning shows and a hit in USA Today or The New York Times.
archer>malmo recommended a publicity campaign focused on key national and regional news outlets. Our angle was to pitch the pandas’ arrival as a feel-good story offering readers and viewers a welcomed diversion from the steady bombardment of news on the war. The audience was adults with children under the age of 12, travel decision makers, grandparents and children. The Zoo’s public relations and marketing budget for the year was $250,000. Approximately $85,000 was applied to media relations for the arrival of the pandas.
Strategies
A pitch letter and press kit was sent to our targeted national and regional media lists. We followed this with a national media tour that included meetings with Good Morning America, Time Magazine for Kids and National Geographic Channel. We directed our pitches around two major media events: the arrival of the pandas and the opening of the exhibit.
In conjunction with FedEx, which transported the pandas to Memphis, press conferences were held in Beijing, China, for the departure of the pandas, and in Memphis for the arrival of the pandas and for the exhibit opening on April 24. A video news release was available to the media via satellite uplink.
A second press conference took place at the Memphis Zoo for the opening of the panda exhibit on April 25. A second video news release was aggressively pitched to regional and national media.
Results
We generated considerable local, regional and national publicity. The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, ABC Primetime Live, CNN, MSNBC, NPR – All Things Considered, AOL, Time Magazine for Kids, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post all covered the exhibit opening. In March and April, 2003, there were 248 airings on local stations, 74 stories in The Commercial Appeal (major daily). Nationally there were 84 airings on stations outside of Memphis, with an estimated audience of more than 24 million people; and over 400 print stories that reached more than 50 million people. We also generated more than one billion online impressions. The publicity created real results as zoo attendance spiked 46% in the first six weeks after pandas.
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